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Marines
Marines Marines are IOTA Expansion only. Marines can be thought as of a weapon: they occupy a light slot, you teleport them inside an enemy ship, and they damage its structure until it is destroyed, or the Marine dies, or you recall him to your ship. Marines cannot attack comets, clouds of locusts, pods, nor living ships, such as the Talon. Marines cannot be teleported on a ship until the shields have been taken down. Marines cannot be recalled from a ship if the shields have regenerated after the Marine was teleported. Marines attack structure while ignoring armor, and their target will be destroyed as soon as its structure is gone, even if the armor is intact, and the shields have regenerated after the Marine was teleported. A ship disabled by a Marine drops significantly more loot than one destroyed by any other means. If the target is one that's unlikely to drop any loot to begin with, the Marine may not find anything, either. It does not matter whether there is a Marine on board, if his target is destroyed by your ship, your small craft, or a race/monster ship, you do not get any extra loot. When a Marine boards a target likely to contain something needed in a quest: spare parts, research information, secret plans, he has a chance to scavenge multiple samples of the item. While fighting the enemies inside his target ship, the Marine may take damage. If the target ship is taking fire while the Marine is inside, the Marine may take damage. If the Marine takes enough damage, he will die. A Marine can have increased marine damage or increased marine defense. He can also have the bonuses other crew members have, except the specialist bonuses (Pilot, Gunner, etc...) Marines are very effective in the early levels (1-25), when their damage is comparable to the damage of other weapons, and they can be used to finish enemy ships without too much effort. At medium levels (25-75), their damage grows much slower than weapon damage, and a lot more planning is needed to allow them the killing blow. At the high levels (75-100) you cannot use Marines effectively unless you have at least one weapon with a relatively low, relatively constant damage that you use to bring the target's health down. Between levels 100 and 200, the level difference between Marines and their target grows to the point they take so much damage while boarding, that you need to constantly pause and restart the action to keep them alive. That said, I have taken a level 200 ship with a level 100 marine (once). There is a bug that makes marines unable to damage the enemy they have boarded after they level. The marine will board the ship, but will never achieve anything even if you leave him there for minutes at a time. When your marine levels, quit and reload. If you have launched small craft, you may want to unslot and reslot the Marine instead. Multiple marines in one target, individually produce bonuses, thus stacking them on an enemy boss can yield many high end items.